Oh, what a season the Spring/Summer 2024 collections have been! We saw plenty of debuts—Gucci wiped the slate clean with Sabato de Sarno; Peter Do cut a sharp figure at Paris Fashion Week—and swan songs—Gabriela Hearst’s rousing departure from Chloé; Walter Chiapponi’s quiet luxury goodbye at Tod’s—it was a moving season, to say the least. But from them, there were several standout shows for the GRAZIA editors that made us feel excited for the upcoming season, from Chanel’s summery ode inspired by the Villa Noailles, to Ralph Lauren’s ranchy sophistication. Ahead, all the SS24 collections you need to take note of right now.
Florals have always been a defining code for Chanel—the Fall/Winter 2023 show was actually based around the emblematic camellia flower. But for Spring/Summer 2024, Virginie Viard reimagined the Grand Palais Éphémère as the gardens of Villa Noailles, a masterpiece of modernist architecture overlooking the town of Hyères in the south of France where checkerboard hedges and bright, tiled floors accessorise a serene structure. These features were referenced in the clothes, too, with a few checkerboard embroidered pieces and coral pink and blue tones making a splash throughout. At the venue, photos of model Rianne Van Rompaey captured by Inez & Vinoodh at the locale established the inspiration. READ MORE
For the critics who may have felt Balenciaga’s Spring/Summer 2024 looks were on the familiar side, you missed the point. This was not a watershed moment or a chance taken to reinvent the wheel, but rather, an exercise in relativity. Inspired by some of the people he’s worked with across his life, the collection is an amalgam of what fashion has and still means to Demna. Bringing this sense of intimacy to the runway in a literal sense, some of these figures became models for the collection. It was a particularly special opening with Demna’s mother gracing the catwalk. READ MORE
As the pulsating bass tore through the floors, the soundtrack evolved to a remix of the late Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’. While the atmosphere was almost clubby in nature, the clothes were more understated. Working within a more muted palette than we’re used to seeing with spring/summer shows, Maria Grazia Chiuri stuck to black, white and other orbiting neutrals, Splashes of faded denim with burnt seems were a surprise twist, as well as the softening of tailoring that was a departure from the usual crisp craftsmanship. READ MORE
At the Garde Républicaine in Paris, France’s oldest fashion house presented its Spring/Summer 2024 collection amongst a field of rustic flowers. Since taking on the reigns at Hermès, Nadège Vanhée-Cybulski has been playing the long game. And as she inches towards a decade at the helm, a tenure that has been universally praised, the Belgian designer continues to find her own dynamic interpretations of Hermès’ 186-year-old DNA. For this collection, just like with her Fall/Winter 2023 show earlier this year, a smooth and timeless colour palette flowed organically. As the show went on, a rich burgundy evolved into taupey neutrals, black, navy and vivid red before concluding in a deep plum. An array of monochromatic looks were broken up by texture and levels created with clever cuts. READ MORE
Born in Uruguay, Gabriela Hearst grew up on her family’s 17,000-acre ranch, Santa Isabel in Paysandu, surrounded by horses, cattle and sheep. At her final show for French luxuriate Chloé—and in a full circle moment—the designer paid tribute to her South American ranching heritage with not only an array of botanical-inspired saloon wear (give or take that Chloé romantic touch), but by dancing with Rio’s samba school, Mangueira, in a spectacle of utter and pure joy. READ MORE
For the Spring/Summer 2024 season, the brand has dedicated its collection to vixens, sirens and multi-faceted femme fatals who have shaped the luxuriate’s identity for almost four decades. Entitled “Women”, Dolce & Gabbana’s panoply of sensual lingerie is an ode to the essence of femininity; innate carnal beauty and powerful mystique harnessed through boudoir sensibility. READ MORE
Despite trend forecaster Sean Monahan predicting a “vibe shift” in early 2022, the zeitgeist’s discombobulating pendulum swing from idolising sensuality and debauchery (epitomised in the “night luxe” aesthetic) to worshipping minimal quiet luxury has made it difficult to discern exactly what the tone of now is. But leave it to 89-year-old designer Giorgio Armani to propose his sartorial hypothesis for what the “vibe” entails, specifically that of the Spring/Summer season for 2024. Concluding Milan Fashion Week, Mr. Armani theorised that his collection—entitled “Vibes”—was not that of a palpable energy, but one of perennial vibration and movement. READ MORE
For Spring/Summer 2024, the Italian leather house is beginning its new chapter, one that doesn’t colour inside the lines that its followers have so ardently drawn. But instead of just picking another spot on the map, Blazy takes us on a global tour, encapsulating the best of every kind of escape in one collection—but the intention was not to hop, skip and jump around the world but to merge worlds. Taking inspiration from South America, Southeast Asia, Russia, Brittany and Sicily, the designer endeavoured to blend these together to tap into some kind of new cultural aesthetic. The result was a breezy collection of holiday-ready looks that all had an air of mystique around them—a destination you can’t quite put your finger on, one that’s entirely new. READ MORE
Tod’s raison d’être is to be a medium to broadcast the beauty of Italian craftsmanship, using their iconic Di Bag or newly coveted Gammino Ballerina shoe as a vessel to display artistry and technical ability innate to Italy. This unwavering devotion to delivering savoir-faire is one of the luxuriate’s most inimitable qualities, bringing forth the la dolce vita lifestyle long before any ‘tomato girl aesthetic’ or micro trend ever did. So, to mark Walter Chiapponi’s final collection, the Milan-born designer looked to the invisible fundamentals that differentiate something as Made In Italy. READ MORE
For Max Mara’s recent Spring/Summer 2024 show, Griffiths steered away from the bourgeois rebel or sartorial intellectual, looking to the might of the everyday woman. Though the quotidian uniforms worn by mundane metropolitans are a perennial source of inspiration for many designers, Griffiths instead turned his attention to the common English woman of the 1940s, who when asked by their government, took up a call to arms and created the Women’s Land Army to help fight axis forces through agricultural measures in World War II. READ MORE
At the East London rehearsal space for the English National Ballet, Simone Rocha has delicately mused on the pomp and circumstance of ceremony for her Spring/Summer 2024 collection. Despite the rose-littered snippets seen on social media and dance-inspired setting suggesting Rocha will delve deeper into her whimsical universe of histrionic femininity, Rocha instead subverted her romantic trademarks into something more perverse. READ MORE
For Spring/Summer 2024, Tory Burch brings enlightened ideas to the runway with expert precision. Defined by modular tailoring, dynamic layers that build structure and volume without bulk, and playful morsels of humor, the collection highlights a side of Burch we’re sure to see more of in seasons to come. One that builds on her reputation for flattering women’s bodies and finds new ways to achieve this. READ MORE
Are the remnants of post-pandemic opulence still lingering within the fashion sect? Or, have the few years since dopamine and sensual dressing reigned supreme paved the way for something else? An aesthetic more intimate and raw rather than extravagant and elegant. At Michael Kors’ Spring/Summer 2024 show, these two juxtaposing styles merged in an unashamedly resort-infused collection that oscillated between body-conscious vulnerability and balmy glamour pertinent for the jet set. READ MORE
In true Ralph Lauren fashion, the Spring/Summer 2024 season brought a blow of fresh style to the heritage brand that not only nodded to its formative codes but fortified them as more relevant than ever. “My spring 2024 women’s collection is about a new kind of romance—cool and sophisticated,” the designer wrote in the show notes. “These are the stories of the woman I design for, whose individuality and artistic spirit are a canvas for her own self-expression.” READ MORE
At the New York Public Library on 7 September, Stuart Vevers toasted a decade at the helm of Coach with a Spring/Summer 2023 collection infused with a rebellious spirit to usher in the label’s new chapter. From the outset, a play of contrasts set the tone for the presentation, with the century-old building rendered in Coach’s archival hues anchoring the youthful attitude of the collection. Seating was arranged specifically to give all guests a front-row view of the show, emphasising the house’s ethos of fashion for all. As the first look traipsed down the neutral runway—a leather slip that, while a hard sell on paper, inexplicably flowed—it was clear that Vevers was forging a new path. READ MORE